


Corporeal (or: Oa is only slightly better than a shopping mall)

by dytabytes



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Green Lantern Corps (Comic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blackest Night, Gen, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-27
Updated: 2010-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-09 04:47:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(AU) What if the Oan shield hadn't been shattered before the Blackest Night?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Corporeal (or: Oa is only slightly better than a shopping mall)

**Author's Note:**

> You will probably enjoy the fic a lot more if you listen to [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxy142kIMk) while reading.
> 
> Additionally, I don't normally do warnings, but this is a dark spin on Blackest Night. Nothing is overly graphic, imo, but if you get triggered by the implications of character death, cannibalism, and other zombie!fic tropes, you probably don't want to read this.

i.

 

Across the universe, people whisper to each other that as long as Oa shines, so does peace and justice. "Watch for the Lantern hanging in the sky," they say to their children, "for evil flees from its light." They cling to this hope as the black tide of rings sweeps through space, damping out the suns and the moons and the stars.

When the tide hits Sector 0, the Green Lantern flickers and sparks wildly, but in the end, it gutters out in the face of the darkness.

ii.

 

They go out in squads of four, one at the front, two at the sides and one to sweep up as they go. It doesn't really do much -- they never manage to make their way out of the ever-growing tide of black rings and their bearers -- but it's a way to let them take out their pent-up energy on things that deserve to be hit.

Kilowog counts as they dash in through the portal, trailing strings of black ichor at their heels. Dread bubbles in the pit of his stomach as he counts, four, eight, twelve, sixteen. One time he reaches fifteen and his heart nearly stops beating in his chest.

After frantically calling roll once, twice, thrice, he realizes that he's been forgetting to count himself.

iii.

Black Lantern infections are incurable and they can't afford to increase the odds against themselves. In the hospitals, Mother Mercy's children live up to their names.

iv.

Construct shotguns aren't quite the same as the real thing, but Kyle figures that since they're living in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, he might as well do things the Right Way. Guy rolls his eyes and makes noises about Kyle being a geek. Still, the one time Kyle misses a shot, Guy's construct dog gets up on its hind legs in order to point and snicker, so Kyle figures that it takes one to know one.

v.

Early on in the battle, when they had still been able to push through the Black Lanterns to get messages in and out, Iolande had received one last missive from her planet. It had been too short for the amount of time she spent staring at it, and Soranik knows what it says even before Iolande raises her head and announces, "Betrassus has fallen to the Black Lanterns. My father died defending his people."

The hollowness in her voice rings in both their hearts, but Soranik can't quite suppress the pangs of jealousy that follow. At least Iolande knows the fate of her home. No one brings any news of Korugar.

vi.

 

They burn their dead at the beginning because there are so many Lanterns trapped on Oa and space is at a premium. Two days later, several no-longer-executed criminals try to claw Vath Sarn's heart out of his chest. The smoke curling through the sky above the crematorium is hastily damped and the morgue begins to fill at an alarming rate.

vii

When he sees the little whiptailed Black Lantern dashing in to snap at one of Kilowog's kids, Guy's heart drops out the bottom of his chest. He knows what is going to happen even before it does. Raan screams, Kilowog's head snaps over and he flings himself in between his rookie and her attacker, roaring when the lizard's teeth sink deep into his shoulder.

He crushes its head in his hands as he calls a retreat, but it's already too late. By the time they've reached the portal, Guy can see the swollen black veins pulsing at the edges of the wound. He stalls as much as he can, hanging close to the portal once it's closed, but eventually, Kilowog's eyes meet his.

"Guy. Please." Kilowog's skin is already fading to grey. "Don't let the Mercies have me."

For once, Guy has no words. There's only one answer to Kilowog's request, though, so a nod is all he needs. Kilowog's smile is wan, but heartfelt. He looks strangely content.

"I'll put in a good word for you to my family when I see them."

viii.

Even Salaak can't remember when Iolande started helping him with his work. Certainly it was sometime after her planet had been taken, but he can't pinpoint an exact incident after that. She'd simply slipped into his shadow, sorting files and sending orders off and making sure that food was always available for the Clarissi.

All sorts of rumours start up when the others start noticing, mostly because gossip is one of the only things the Corps has that's even close to amusing nowadays. Maybe she's just filling her time, since her partner is at the hospital all the time. Maybe she's given up her regal airs because she's not a princess anymore. Maybe she's having an illicit affair with Salaak.

It's that last one, which is so ridiculous that it might just be true, that prompts Soranik to ask her directly when they pass in the halls. Iolande just shrugs in response. "A queen without a country is still a queen."

It's as much of an answer as she is ever going to give, but it tells Soranik more than enough.

ix.

 

Six weeks in, people start noticing that their food stores are getting low. Oa is a small planet, dedicated to the Corps, not to farming, and it has no efficient way to replenish that which its Lanterns are consuming. Eventually, Salaak has to make a choice.

The sky over the crematorium stays clear, but the morgue starts to empty faster than even Mother Mercy can fill it.

x.

 

For all that they aren't alive anymore, the Black Lanterns manage to mimic what they were all too well. It makes it hard for Kyle to use his ring because it feels like he's murdering his friends for the second, third, fourth time. He tries to make their deaths clean, but something in his chest twists sharply every time he sees another familiar face gone grey. There's always a brief pause before he strikes as he searches in the eyes of his former friends for some spark of life, just in case.

He makes an exception to this rule for only one Lantern, who Kyle blasts into a fine mist on sight without any hesitation. Kilowog had been one of Kyle's closest friends, but Guy is Kyle's partner, his living, breathing partner, and he's at Kyle's back every time they go into the fray.

And yes, Guy is tough as nails and he could hold his own against Kilowog as many times as he needed to. He could shoot his own damn dog again and again and not regret the choice of the living over the dead ... but he shouldn't have to. That's why Kyle does it for him.

xi.

 

If they were in any other situation, Boodikka would have done the honourable thing and fallen on her sword rather than suffer the indignity of this slow death by inches. The other Lanterns see Oa as a haven in the midst of the Blackest Night, but she knows that the Guardians' "shield" is nothing more than a fancy coffin.

With the cursed Black Rings circling the planet, though, she can't even grant herself a worthy end. To be a traitor to her cause in death would be even worse than this slow, suffocating descent into madness.

xii.

 

As she dies, Laira can't help but think that this end shouldn't have come as a surprise to her. Ke'Haan had held her heart in his hands long before today. That metaphor has become reality is only one incident in a long line of ironies.

xiii.

Guy doesn't sleep anymore, not when he can help it. The moment he starts to drop off, fallen friends leap at him from the darkness behind his eyelids. Kilowog, Tora, Arisa, R'Amey, the list only grows every day the siege continues. They crowd around from all sides, crushing him and squeezing all the air out as their boney fingers claw at his skin. They're trying drag him away with them, down, down, down into the blackness and he knows that when they get him, he won't ever come back. Though he struggles and thrashes, it isn't enough.

That's always when he wakes up, cold and clammy and alone. Swallowing hard, Guy takes a shuddering breath and tries to chase the shadows away with his ring, but the green glow isn't nearly as comforting as it used to be.

He starts sleeping with the lights on.

xiv.

 

The tea is cold now. It has been sitting by his elbow for at least two waves of patrol and it tastes metallic and sour, having steeped for far too long. Salaak drinks it anyway, sipping slowly because tea is a luxury and he is the one to blame for letting it sit and cool to its unappetising state. He's been busy, but that is no excuse. It never has been.

He can ill afford even this break, really, but Iolande had brought Soranik to threaten him with sedatives, so for now he sits with his tea and remembers. He doesn't want to, but he can't help himself. He remembers times that are now long ago and worn with age, times when his tea had never been cold, had never had a chance to cool because he'd had other people to drink it with.

He doesn't let himself think about that for too long, though. The past may have faded, but it still studs his heart with painful shards of longing.

xv.

 

Isamot wonders if the patrols are worth it. The Black Lanterns don't die, after all, since they reform within seconds of being torn apart. The only reason for going out is for a change of scenery, but even then, the taste of freedom always leaves him even more restless than before.

When he's not outside the shield, he still can't stop moving. He's always pacing the floors unless he's sitting, and even then, his tail lashes violently and his claws tap against the nearest surfaces, beating out a nervous tattoo.

He's taken to cleaning to fill the time. Being part of the Corps means that he no longer has a uniform to press or weapons to polish, but he can still neaten up his quarters. They're cleaner than they were the day he moved in. He's running a dust cloth over his desk for the third time today, wiping away smudges that don't exist.

His bed is made, his drawers are organized and his floor has started to sparkle in the sunlight.

None of it means a fucking thing, but it keeps him from thinking too hard.

xvi.

 

Soranik's bunk has stayed undisturbed for weeks. She simply can't find the time to go back to it and even if she could, she wouldn't. There are too many patients streaming into the hospital, too many of her fellow Lanterns stumbling in with blood and tears and sanity leaking out onto the floors, and all of them need her care. Going home would be a waste of precious time, so she ends up eating in the hospital cafeteria, showering in the wards and sleeping in a cot in the basement.

There's enough room in the patient wings for her to sleep on a proper mattress, but Soranik has never felt comfortable sleeping in a bed she's seen someone die in and all the beds in the hospitals failed to meet her requirements months ago.

xvii.

 

Guy comes home and finds Kyle thrashing on the sofa, caught in the clutches of a bad dream. He stumbles over, half-awake and weary, and ends up flopping on top of Kyle because it's the only thing he has the energy to do. He hasn't been sleeping all that well himself.

Kyle doesn't seem to care about being accidentally squished, though, because he snaps awake and immediately curls into him, burying his face into Guy's chest as if trying to hide from just about everything. Guy doesn't really listen when Kyle starts babbling about how the sky is full of corpses and it's going to start falling soon but the fox's den isn't all that much better than being caught outside. His words are harsh and jumbled as they drop from his mouth and Guy is so tired that he only understands one in three of them.

What he knows, though, is that Kyle is breaking down and Guy is coming close to doing just the same, but it's not so bad when they're together and they can listen each other breathe. So Guy rubs Kyle's back and makes nonsensical little noises until Kyle stops shivering. It's the first time in weeks that either of them sleep through the night and Guy moves into Kyle's room the next day. He never quite manages to go back to his own.


End file.
